Commission on the Status of Women 2015

This is a Blog prepared by the National Council of Women of Canada on the upcoming meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women, to be held at the United Nations in New York from March 9 to March 20, 2015

Friday, April 24, 2015

21st Century Challenges to Cross Border Movements was an excellent side event at CSW59. It was organized by the Philippine Commission on Women. The speakers at this
panel were: Ms. Jean Enriquez - CATW-AP (Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
- Asia Pacific), Secretary Imelda Nicolas (Commission on Filipinos Overseas), Ms.
May-I Fabros (Philippine Commission of Women), Professor Aurora de Dios (Miriam
College), and Ms. Emmeline Verzosa (Philippine Commission of Women).

There
was a gender focus on migration in the context of natural disasters, climate
change, and armed conflict. There was a particular focus on the Philippines.
The panelists also discussed refugees that fled from the Gulf War, the Asian
Tsunami, and the Libyan crisis to name a few. Overall, these conflicts and
natural disasters have left millions displaced and seeking refuge.

The
migration and refugee issue is quite pressing in the Philippines due to the typhoon
that devastated their country in 2013. Over 4 million people have been
displaced and 48% of those displaced are women. This displacement leads to the
vulnerability of women and a need to protect and promote the human rights of
women.

These conflicts and natural disasters have created long term impacts for many
individuals and affected communities. Due to the crisis, many refugees and
asylum seekers are smuggled and trafficked for labour and/or sex. Many women
are forced into prostitution in order to help their families due to the
desperate and terrible conditions that they are facing.

In
2013, there were 4.5 million refugees from Syria and many of these refugees get
caught in the crossfire, are raped, suffer from starvation, and are isolated, The refugees are also unable to receive aid if they are not registered in the
country which they are seeking aid. This poses other problems such as
children not being able to attend school and thus this continues the cycle of
poverty.

The
main problem is that there is no international legal framework that protects
these asylum seekers, despite the fact that it is a major issue affecting the
lives of millions. Movement is a sign of life and there needs to be more help
available to those in need.

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

March
8Consultation Day (“Celebrate
the Feminist and Women’s Movements
1975 -2015”)

This
opening event certainly felt like a celebratory welcome to delegates.
Everything from the opening songs by the Women of the World, the welcoming
messages by Soon-Young Yoon, Chair of NGO Committees on the Status of Women/New
York, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General and Executive
Director, UN Women, the speakers and panelists throughout the day, provided
positive energy and food for thought.

Women of the World

We
were urged to look at progress in regard to the issue of violence against
women. As an example, domestic violence is now considered a crime. Education on
the issues of violence against women needs to occur at all levels. We need
equality across the board. "The world must change, not the women."

Particularly
striking was the keynote address by Ruchira Gupta (Women of Distinction Awardee
and winner of a Clinton Global Citizen award) as she spoke about the issues she
raised in the production of the documentary "The Selling of
Innocents" and the fight to end sex trafficking in India. She urged us not
to settle for rescuing just the top portion of the girls in the lower rungs of
poverty but to work at helping the very last girl.

Other
speakers and panelists urged us to:

-
"speak about feminist economy rather than women in poverty"

-
acknowledge “the diversity and
depth of the movement in various regions"

-
examine the “fundamental
resistances” to the laws and tools
in place, but not yet implemented.

-
examine why many women are still left behind in the present economic
structures.

-
realize that the backlash is very strong, and particularly strong in extremist
places -- this is about us, all of us.

-
realize that in some societies, patriarchy is used to create divisions between
us.

-
understand that political use/ misuse of religion is used to divide us

"The
next conference in 20 years needs to be organized by women not yet born."

"We
need to pass the slow drivers in government."

"Support
the right women (stop supporting the right men.)"

"We
need to do our homework after this conference." Dr. Mangella was elected
to the pan-African parliament and then became its president. She saw this as
doing her homework from Beijing.

During
a panel discussion in the afternoon, Mary Robinson, former Prime Minister of
Ireland, talked about the price that needs to be paid to achieve our goals and
the negative impact of climate change (omitted in Beijing) especially on women.
The young people spoke about their hopes for the future and the progress they
feel they have made to this point.

Young Activists' Perspectives with Mary Robinson

Celebration
March, March 8

This march was upbeat and celebratory. The
speeches were dynamic.

Celebration March to Times Square

NGO
Orientation, Monday March 9

This
session provided a needed overview of the history of the UN and the World Conferences
on Women, government meetings, parallel and side events. This was helpful for
me as someone new to CSW.

Energy
Access as a Key Driver of Gender Equality, Monday, March 9

In
this presentation by a panel, "energy is women's business" was at the
core of the presentation. “Access to clean
energy is crucial for women and children" as they are the ones who suffer
the most when clean energy is not available, The Beijing Platform did not touch
on energy.

They
estimated 4 million deaths due to kitchen pollution and smoky kitchens. Another
health concern is that the women were carrying 40 pounds of water on their
heads daily causing spinal injury and damage to reproductive organs.

If
water, sanitation, clean energy (cook stoves) and electricity are not available,
women suffer disproportionately. Income generation also depends on available
energy.

Panelists speak about the need for energy access for women

Making
the Invisible Visible: Partnering to End Violence Against Women and Children in
Rwanda, March 9

We
were shown the powerful results that can come from the collaboration of UNICEF,
Zonta and UN Women. The one- stop centers for medical and psychosocial care in
Rwanda for survivors of violence provide assistance to women in need.

NGO
CSW Forum Reception, March 9

The
NGO CSW Forum held a reception for all UN and NGO delegates attending CSW59 at
the Armenian Convention Center Ballroom. We were welcomed to the North
American/European section of the ballroom by Soon Young Yoon, Chair of NGO
Committees on the Status of Women. It was at this reception that Ruchira Gupta
was awarded the Woman of Distinction Award for 2015. There was a large buffet
available to all attendees. Music was provided by an all woman mariache band.

Kenya
– Women’s Economic
Empowerment . . . , March 10

This
presentation provided information on an organization in Kenya (called JOYWO for
Joyful Women) that empowers rural women to take control of their lives. Women
are offered small loans to start small businesses, usually involving
agricultural production. JOYWO has facilitated the mobilization of
approximately 190,000 rural women into groups allowing them to raise capital
and make these small loans. Women have gained confidence and learned new
skills, especially when it comes to personal and small business finances.

Key
to the success of the project has been the support of Her Excellency Mrs. Rael
Ruta, patron of the Joyful Women Organization.

JOYWO panelists

Gender
Inequality and Climate Change - How to tackle a Double Injustice, March 10

This
panel was chaired by Martha Chouchen-Rojas. The French minister, Pascale
Boistard's main point seemed to be that women in power at ALL levels of
government needed to take action. Mary Robinson echoed this and extended it
-"poor women are disproportionately affected by climate change." "Women
should be in all aspects of the climate change discussions." "Women
are in the front lines as climate change is happening." She observed this
first hand in her visits to Africa. Climate change discussions "need to be
people centered." Adaptations costs. We need more financing. Climate
change discussions need to recognize the different impacts on women and men.
"The climate world is still very male driven by science and numbers. A
gender balance is needed in these discussions.Climate change is
the most serious human rights issue. "We are the first generation to see
its impact and the last generation to have time to do something."

Lakshmir
Puri spoke more generally about the gender blind process till 2010. She would
like to see the term "women's empowerment" included in the
terminology of climate change discussions because it makes more developmental
sense.

Child,
Early and Forced Marriage – Indicators
for Progress, March 10

The
Honourable Dr. Kelly Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of
Women, spoke about the fact that in Canada we have laws to prevent child, early
and forced marriage.

Greta
Rad Gupta talked about measuring progress: 1. Where we have been, 2. Where we
are going and 3. The role of data

700
million women alive today were married as children.

Salam
Kanaan from Jordan talked about the many Syrian refugees in Jordan. 630,00 are
registered but the government believes the true figure is around 1.5 million.
There has been an increase in the number of Syrian child marriages for several
reasons: protection, financial, male refugees can emigrate more easily if
married.

Hope,
a young woman from Kenya, spoke about the need for community sensitization, the
need for harsher penalties and stricter laws, and the need for parents to see
the benefits of education for girls.

Francoise
Girard from Women's Health Organization spoke of the need to take into account
the whole girl, the need to look at the root causes of child marriages like the
devaluation of girls. Schools need to be girl friendly and girl centered.

She
urged us to go for one strong indicator of success in the upcoming years – eg. the percentage married at
18+ in the 20-24 age bracket.

I
wondered why Canada had chosen to support this particular issue (although an
important one) when there are so many issues like murdered and missing
aboriginal women that affect so many more women in Canada.

Progress
Report of the Beijing Declaration at Twenty: Preventing Violence Against
Indigenous Women in the Western Hemisphere and Addressing Our need for
culturally Relevant Health Care Services, March 10

At
the Beijing Conference, there were just a couple of references to indigenous
peoples, not enough. Indigenous women and girls are 8 more times at risk of
exploitation in the USA than the general population of women. Of concern is the
Keystone pipeline. “Man camps” along the pipeline prey on
vulnerable indigenous women. Mining and fracking are considered environment
violence, because water is contaminated. This affects reproductive
capabilities. Children are dying; this is seen as a form of genocide. However,
governments see this form of mining as development.

We
need to learn to work with governments. Women need culturally specific
treatment in health care. The indigenous speaker from Ecuador spoke about some
hospitals for natural births and the use of mid-wives. Indigenous peoples still
need to be acknowledged as people with rights.

The
keynote speaker was Marilou McPhedran. She spoke about the legal framework for
peacebuilding, an antidote to legal and policy fatigue. We want to use legal
frameworks to shift the culture of violence (rape) to a culture of peace. She
outlined the various Security Council resolutions that are in place together
with the CEDAW GR 30 document. Her conclusion was that autonomous feminist
movements are the most powerful tool against violence.

Implications
of forced displacement of Iraqi families due to ISIS terror, March 12

This
panel became a very heated discussion on the issues facing the Iraqi people as
a result of the ISIS terror. Many times, the discussion and arguments tended to
diverge from a concentration on how the ISIS attacks and the resultant refugee
issues affected women to a general discussion of the impact on the country.

Judge Dr. Zakia Hakki speaks about issues in Iraq

We
used to be #1, March 12

Canada
was #1 on the equality index in 1995; now we are #23. The five member panel
presented some powerful albeit disheartening information about the women’s movement in Canada. The
panelists were contributors and writers of the document “Progress on Women’s Rights: Missing in Action,”a shadow report on Canada’s Implementation of the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Some
of the points made during this presentation included:

-
The women’s movement has
become fragmented because of government funding cuts and a change in focus. The
labour movement tries to support various projects but simply cannot replace
government. The labour movement has taken up such causes as child care and
violence against women.

-
We need a national action plan and policy to address violence against women.
This needs to include a stand-alone policy on intimate partner violence or
sexual assault.

-
The federal government funding shift to the “Housing First” model has not taken into
account the reasons for women’s homelessness.
Women’s homelessness
tends to be hidden and is often the result of violence. Due to the cut in
funding for the National Council on Welfare, there is no gender specific
information about women in poverty.

-
We need policies that focus on girls: regarding violence against girls, their
mental health and emotional well-being, and their education.

-
The federal government’s cancellation of
the long-form Census has significantly hampered progress for women on many
fronts.

-
Women’s leadership in
civil society is critical. The resolution of the Security Council together with
CEDAW’s work has laid the
legal groundwork for us. Autonomous feminist movements are the most powerful
tool against violence.

Mary Scott, NCWC, introduces the session and panelists

Gender
Equality and Aging Society: the Asian Perspective, March 13

The
panel brought varying perspectives to the discussion. The most valuable section
was some of the conclusions:

-all
data be gender and age desegregated

-support
a long life learning approach to technology and aging

-strengthen
community networks

-make
the invisible visible

-integrate
aging into all policies (absent from Beijing)

Other
Meetings Attended:

Morning
Briefings March 11-13

Daily
Canadian Government Briefings

A
CFUW Meeting

Two
IFUW Breakfast Meetings

General
Comments

I
found my experience at CSW59 to be exhilarating. Hearing so many perspectives
on gender issues, appreciating the diverse positive strides throughout the
world, I was moved by the efforts to improve the lives of women made by so many
people.

It
is evident that a great deal of thought goes into the wording of the statements
and resolutions.

I
was impressed with the work being done in several African countries like Kenya
and Rwanda. These are tangible steps. I am disappointed in Canada’s efforts in the area of
violence against women.

I
liked the fact that there was a large spread of age groups in attendance. This
is a hopeful sign. However, I hope the push to include aging women in the
language and the dialogue on all women’s
issues is heard.

Climate
change is having a disproportionately harder effect on women than men.
Something to think about.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

NCWC along with many NGOs from the North American/European Caucus have signed on to a statement, stating that the political declaration is not an ambitious, serious and
forward-looking commitment and raises severe concerns for women’s
organisations.

Women’s organisations should be supported to participate in the work of
the CSW and regional meetings on gender equality, including on the
post-2015 agenda, due to their instrumental role in promoting women’s
and girls’ rights. Women’s organisations and feminist groups should be
systematically included in national delegations to the CSW, given access
to negotiations, and be able to speak and intervene during general and
panel discussion.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Just back from the first week of the 59th
Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in New York. This is a
two-week period each year where the 193 member countries of the UN are required
to come in, and report on what they're doing to improve the status of girls and
women in their country. It's about intergovernmental negotiations, although
since the governments are there, so are the women. Some 8,500 women
representing 1,000 NGOs world-wide are there this year. So while governments
negotiate, there are also “Side events,” with “high level” government
representatives that are held in the UN building, and “Parallel events,” held
in the UN Church Centre across the street plus other locations. This is my
sixth time in eight years, and I love it. Here’s a brief overview of some of
the many things going on.

March
8th

Photo 1 – Apollo
Theatre

Consultation day for
the NGOs is always held on Sunday. Organized by the NGO-SWC/NY committee, it’s
always a good chance to get a preview of what the issues are. This year, it was
at the Apollo theatre in NYC. How cool is that!

Photo 2 - UN building

Theme this year, Beijing Plus 20,
celebrating The Beijing Declaration and platform for action, and assessing
where we go from here. Today, the phrase "Women's rights are human
rights" is so widely recognized that we tend to forget how difficult it
was to establish that concept a mere 20 years ago. The fact that so many
women’s groups come, as NGOS CSW/NY chair Soon-Young Yoon said Sunday, shows not
only important civil society has become to the UN but also how the UN has
become an extraordinary avenue to raise women's issues on the global stage

Photo 3 - CSW59 poster up

Photo 4 - IWD March to Times Square on
March 8th

Photo 5 – Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka

Powerful address by
UN Women Under-Secretary-General Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at Consultation Day on
Sunday. Moving forward, she said, we need to focus not on what needs to
be done but how we will get it done. In the next 15 years, “we need to
break the back of inequality once and for all. This can be done. This is not
mission impossible. It is the last mile.” The objective now is Planet 50-50 by
2030.

Photo 6 – Dr
Gertrude Mongella

Wonderful as well to
see and hear from Dr. Gertrude Mongella, former Under-Secretary-General for the
UN Fourth World Conference on Women on “What
Beijing + 20 Must Accomplish.”

Photo 7 - Ban Ki-moon

March 9th, opening - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the CSW with a review of
progress since 1995, and called it unacceptably slow, with stagnation and even
regression in some cases. There are five countries in the world w/o a single
woman in parliament; eight w/o a female Cabinet minister. He wouldn't name them
- they know who they are. In his report, the SG said that progress has been particularly
slow for women and girls who experience multiple and intersecting forms of
discrimination. He called for greater participation by men. "Truly
powerful men are those who work for the empowerment of women."A
synthesis of the SG’s report on the 20-year review and appraisal of the
implement of the Beijing Platform for Action can be found here. http://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2015/02/beijing-synthesis-report

Photo 8 - CEDAW

CEDAW and Gender-based Violence: Progress
and Challenges 20 years after Beijing. Interesting panel discussion moderated
by Japanese Association of International Women’s Rights Board member Professor
Mitsuko Horiuchi. One of the panelists reminded us that Canada has been found
“in grave violation” under CEDAW (the Convention on the Elimination of all
kinds of Discrimination Against Women) for its treatment of Aboriginal women
and girls. A report out of Geneva on March 6th found that the
Canadian police and justice system have failed to effectively protect
Aboriginal women, to hold offenders to account, and to ensure victims get
redressed. CEDAW made 38 recommendations to correct the situation; Canada has
accepted 34. The US is one of the few countries in the world that has never
been a signatory to CEDAW.

Photo 9 – Glen
Canning presenting

Monday afternoon, Status of Women and YWCA
Canada co-sponsored a session on cyber violence, and the list of speakers was
excellent. It included Glen Canning from Nova Scotia, Canada, whose daughter
Rehtaeh Parsons was a victim of cyber violence; Diane Woloachuk from the
Canadian Teacher's Federation; speakers from YWCA New Zealand, OurWatch.org in Australia,
Microsoft and the McGill Research Centre on emotional intelligence. SWC
Minister Kellie Leitch opened the session by pointing out that 84 percent of victims of cyber violence are women under the age of
24. "It's as powerful and painful as any other form of violence," she
said. Woloachuk from the Teacher's Federation noted that the safety zone for
girls is getting smaller and smaller. Students receiving mean messages through
social media take them seriously, become unable to learn and fall into
depression, she said. Excellent speakers, lots of good strategies, information
and resources.

Photo 10 - “End Child Marriage"

Tuesday March 10 - Canada and Plan International co-sponsored a session on Tuesday on
"Ending child, early and forced marriages.” 700 million women in the world
were married off as children, and the consequences are disastrous: early
pregnancy with resulting health problems; no education; lost opportunities;
childhoods denied. GirlsNotBrides is a worldwide partnership of organizations
trying to end it.

Photo 11 - With YWCA
Canada Board member Rebecca Coughlin in the General Assembly room.

Photo 12 - With
Bertha Yenwo, she runs a NGO for women entrepreneurs in Cameroon.

Wednesday, attended a session organized by
the NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons on “What’s Changed, What needs to change since Beijing.” Statistics on
Human Trafficking continue to worsen – HT is the fastest growing crime in the
world, after drugs and guns, a $150 billion industry – there are nonetheless
good examples of work being done to stop trafficking and rescue women and
children who have been victims. One is girlbeheard.org, which gives voice to
young women through video. Another is ungiftbox.org, an innovative project
created by STOP THE TRAFFIK and the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human
Trafficking launched during the 2012 London, England Olympics. GIFT boxes are
walk-in pieces of public art used to educate people about human trafficking.

Photo 15 – Stop HT poster

Photo 16,
woman from Brazil, talking about the MenCare+ program implementation in her
country.

A cross-cutting issue addressed in many of
the sessions is violence, defined broadly: domestic violence; rape and sexual
assault; child, early and forced marriage; FGM; honour killings; cyber
violence; prostitution; human trafficking; rape as a tool of war ... and the
list goes on. A common theme, the increasing need to engage boys and men. As a
speaker from the Nordic Network said Wednesday, "We put all our energy into helping victims ... We talk to women
about escaping and taking care of themselves. We need
to talk to boys and men because among them, we'll find the perpetrators." Attended a session Thursday sponsored by Promundoglobal.org, an NGO that "works globally to
achieve a culture of nonviolence and gender equality by engaging men and boys
in partnership with women and girls." Founded in Brazil in 1997, the group
is supported by the UN, World Bank and World Health Organization. It is implementing
a program called MenCare+ in four countries. Another program is HeforShe.org,
which encourages men around the world to stand up for gender equality, and
which was launched at the CSW a few years ago. Still another program for men is
breakthrough.tv/ringthebell/, which is a grass-roots movement that encourages
men to actively interfere when domestic violence is occurring. I like this one,
although not sure about the safety of it in the Canadian context. We need to
start thinking more about this in Canada.

Photo 17, in
conference room 1

One of the
“good news” pieces from this year’s CSW is that the daily de-brief by the
NGO-SWC/NY committee is now back in the UN building. I’ve been going since
2008, and we’ve always been across the street at the UN Church Centre. But
civil society participation is now so large, that they’ve given us conference
room 1 in the UN building. As Chair Soon-Young Yoon said, we’re back! And we’re
not leaving!

Photo 18, Sue
Calhoun in conference room 1

Photo 19, with
Mary Scott, head of Canada’s National Council of Women delegation (of which I
was a member).

Photo 20, Always
great to see friends again, with Lucina Kathman, vp of PEN International from
San Miguel, Mexico.

About the National Council of Women of Canada

NCWC was founded in 1893, incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1914, and given national historic significance status on April 30th, 2001 by the Government of Canada. Since 1893 NCWC has been working to improve the lives of women, children and communities in Canada.

NCWC has consultative status with the United Nations, and each year sends a delegation to the meetings of the CSW.

To see more about the National Council of Women of Canada, check out the NCWC web site here.